Heavy Metal. Hard Rock. Music.

Video footage of vocalist Sharon den Adel of Dutch symphonic rockers WITHIN TEMPTATION performing an acoustic version of the song “Whole World Is Watching” on February 3 at the studios of the Q-Music radio station in Belgium can be seen below.

WITHIN TEMPTATION‘s new album, “Hydra”, was released in North America on February 4. The album is available in several luxury formats. The cover artwork was created by Romano Molenaar (“X-Men”, “Batman”, “The Unforgiving”).

The digital premium album, complete with digi-booklet, is available on iTunes and includes 18 audio tracks and a music video. The digital premium album features bonus “Evolution Versions” of four new songs, which contain audio commentary from guitarist Robert Westerholt and singer Sharon den Adel and give you unique access to the development of the songs, their lyrical inspiration and the sound of the initial demos and vocals.

Aside from the digital premium version, “Hydra” was also released in a deluxe box set including exclusive items:

“Hydra” deluxe box set

* “Hydra” 18-track album including bonus tracks in the form of a media book with a hot foil print cover, featuring a 100-page booklet consisting of unique photos
* Double gatefold black vinyl version of the album including bonus tracks
* Instrumental version of the entire album
* Songbook with sheet music of the songs of the album
* “Hydra” guitar pick
* Packaged in an especially designed LP-sized box

In a recent interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com, Sharon stated about the songwriting process for “Hydra”“: “A lot of bands were inspired by the ’80s at the time we were writing ‘The Unforgiving’ album. There was a lot of music based on the ’80s coming out and it had a lot of ’80s flavors. With this new album, even though we’re only a few years further up the road, you can feel that music has changed again. Music is not inspired on the ’80s, but more like there are different influences in the music again. Music’s always organic, and you feel things are changing comfortably.”

She added: “When people asked us after ‘The Unforgiving’, ‘Are you gonna make another ‘Unforgiving’ album?” we said, ‘Of course.’ Because we were really full of it in a positive way. We really like the album a lot and still do like it a lot but we really feel there’s an ’80s feel to the songs. When we started writing this album, again we felt like we were already knowing we were gonna go a different direction also.”